Senegalese authorities on Wednesday blocked access to social media app TikTok, widening a clampdown on dissent days after they dissolved the country's main opposition party and took its leader into custody.
A power struggle between Pastef party leader Ousmane Sonko and President Macky Sall has triggered violent demonstrations, most recently on Monday, and damaged Senegal's reputation as the most stable democracy in West Africa.
Senegal dissolved Pastef and restricted access to internet services on Monday, citing threats to the stability of the country. Its communications minister used a similar justification to block TikTok.
"The TikTok application is the social network favoured by people with bad intentions to spread hateful and subversive messages," Moussa Bocar Thiam said in a statement on Wednesday.
Read the full statement as translated below:
SUBJECT: Temporary suspension of the TikTok app
The Minister of Communication, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy
informs the public that it has been found that the TikTok application is the preferred social network by people with bad intentions to spread hateful and counterproductive messages threatening the stability of the country.
As a result, the TikTok social network is suspended in Senegal until further notice.
Telephone operators are required to comply with notified requisitions.
Done in Dakar, August 02, 2023
Me: Moussa Bocar THIAM
Sonko was charged on Saturday with plotting an insurrection and other offences, and taken into custody.
Opposition supporters, who have held protests throughout the year, accused President Sall of levelling charges in order to disqualify Sonko from a presidential election due in 2024.
The government denied this and blames Sonko and Pastef for stoking violence.
On Monday night two people were killed in opposition protests in the southern city of Ziguinchor, where Sonko is mayor, and two people burned to death on Tuesday when attackers hurled petrol bombs into a passenger bus.
Riots broke out across the country in June, killing at least 16 people, after Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison for immoral behaviour towards people younger than 21. He is yet to start serving that term.
Sonko, who denies wrongdoing, had urged his followers to take to the streets at the time.
A month ago, President Sall ended widespread speculation by saying he would not seek a third term as president next year, which critics had said would be illegal. His party is yet to put forward its preferred candidate for the election.
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